The home electronics industry, in the midst of an on-going convergence of televisions and computers, has produced a new class of products, known as PC-TV systems, or personal-computer-television systems. In their simplest form, these systems allows a user to selectively switch between using a video monitor to watch television or to support computer activities, like word processing, creating spread sheets, playing computer games, or even surfing the world wide web. A seminal example, the Gateway Destination PC-TV system from Gateway 2000, Inc., not only weds a television to a personal computer, but allows system expansion to include satellite receivers and video-cassette recorders (VCRs).
Destination and other such systems additionally include an automatic recording feature which allow users to instruct VCRs to automatically record specific upcoming television programs, days, weeks, or even months before they actually occur. The instructions typically designate a channel, a start time, and an end time, and the systems log, or register, the instructions, for future execution. Once registered, the systems automatically select the designated channels and begin and end recordings at the designated times.
Although this feature provides a wonderful convenience for users, it also creates a high likelihood that users will forget previously-logged recording instructions, which in turn can cause several problems for users. For example, a user may load a video cassette without enough “room” to record an entire program or even forget to load any cassette at all. Thus, the system will be unable to execute a registered recording instruction, resulting in partial or complete loss of a recording opportunity. Additionally, users often forget to remove rewound video cassettes from their VCRs and inadvertently allow their systems to automatically record over priceless, one-of-a-kind recordings of births, marriages, graduations, etc.